A Report on the MDG Progress The contemporary world is faced with a lot of challenges and difficulties. As an organization that was formed to combat crises globally, UN has to ensure that these challenges are being tackled. The Millennium Development Goals were formed in 1990 to try and meet the needs that cannot be met by a member country on its own.
Based on six goals, this paper will give a detailed report on the international community’s progress towards meeting the targets Goals chosen and why The following are the goals that have been chosen for review on their progress internationally: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
These goals have been selected due to their urgency. According to Bojo and Chandra (9), hunger, disease, poor education systems and gender inequality are the most dominant challenges that are facing many countries. Apart from that, the rate at which they affect humanity reduces the rate of social, economic and political growth (Bojo and Chandra 9).
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger According to the UN Report (6), the first target of this goal is to cut by half the number of people whose daily income is below $ 1 between 1990 and 2015. The second target is to accomplish productive and decent employment for all people. Within the same period, this goal is also supposed to reduce the number of people suffering from hunger (Devarajan, Miller and Swanson 18).
Most of these problems, as Devarajan, Miller and Swanson (18) assert, have been caused by the economic dwindling experienced throughout the world, especially the developing nations. Measures are being implemented to meet this goal. Firstly, the number of people living in poverty has reduced from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion between 1990 and 2005.The percentage of people living in extreme poverty has fallen down from 46 to 27 also.
The developing world is meeting this target in that, the number of underweight children has fallen down. The UNESCO Report of 2010 also shows that most African countries, especially Kenya and Namibia are implementing hunger policies (“Education Counts: Towards the Millennium Development Goals” 44).
African governments are putting aside extreme amounts of funds in their budgets to solve the hunger, poverty and unemployment challenges. By 2015, things ought to have improved and the targets met fully. Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education This goal targets to achieve help poor countries make improvements in offering education to their people. The most targeted region is Sub-Saharan Africa, where most children are out of school.
According to the MDG Report of 2010, inequality between boys and girls in developing countries is also supposed to be done away with to make universal education possible by 2015 (“Assesing progress in Africa toward the Millennium Development Goals” 51). There is good advancement in meeting this target because by 2008, there was a 6% increment in the primary school enrolment from 83% in 2000.
This has been realized through efforts in most developing countries to abolish school fees. Children in Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Burundi no longer pay fees for their education. According to UN Report, children in these countries are provided with free meals, water and even sanitation towels to help increase the numbers.
As much as there is a little improvement, the rate at which things are progressing is too slow to meet the target by 2015. According to the UNESCO Report of 2010, 69 million school-age children are out of school and half of them are from Sub-Saharan Africa. 18 million of the number is in Southern Asia.
By 2015, things will have improved but the target will not be met. Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women This target of the goal is to eradicate gender inequality in both secondary and primary education by 2005 and in all levels of education by 2015. Poverty and traditional beliefs remain to be the major factors hindering girl education in developing countries. Job allocation and salary payment still remain high for men.
The World Bank Report of 2003 shows that, women can only access informal jobs that do not pay (“Getting serious about meeting the Millennium Development Goals: A comprehensive Development Framework Progress Report.” 12). The realization and progress of this goal is proved by the improvement in school enrolment for girls in developing countries. The number of girl enrolment in school was 96 when that of boys was 100 in developing countries.
In terms of employment, men are still enjoying the higher notch even thought there has been a slight improvement in terms of gender balance. According to UN Report, women empowerment politically in Africa has improved greatly as the number of women in parliaments has gone up. Although it is evident that there is progress in meeting this goal, the rate of its advancement still shows that, it will still be far from reality by 2015.
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality This goal targets to decrease the rate of under-five child mortality rate by two thirds come 2015. Many children in the developing nations die due to unavailability of vaccines and proper medication. As much as this might be a threat, progress has been shown because the number of “children death reduced from 100 to 72 per 1000 live births between 1990 and 2008” (Quoted from UN Report, p. 31).
However, this goal is not being met as expected. The World Bank Report 2002 shows that, the number of children still dying from poor medical attention is still high in many developing countries (“Linking Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management: Policy Challenges and Opportunities” 21). Only 10 countries out of 67 are strictly following the convention to meet this goal. This is far from meeting its target and by 2015, things might not be any better.
Goal 5: Improve maternal health This goal targets to cut down the number of maternal deaths by ¾.Giving birth in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan countries is very risky. Skilled midwives are few, forcing many women to give births using traditional means, which are risky. Another target is to realize universal access to reproductive health by 2015. Poor education in proper hygiene during pregnancy leaves many mothers at risk.
Poverty, according to the MDG Report 2010, is another hindrance to the practice of good pregnancy hygiene for most mothers in Asian and African countries (“Millennium Development Goals Report” 51). There is Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality (CARMMA) in most African countries including Nigeria and Rwanda. However, these targets are not being met fully and this still leaves pregnancy or childbirths risky.
The UN Report of 2010 indicates that, “more than 350,000 women die every year during pregnancy or childbirth” (31). Developing countries suffer more of this because out of 30, 1 woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth. This is high as compared to developed countries, where the ratio is 1: 5,600 (“The Millenium Development Goals Report” 60).
The progress of things shows that this goal might not meet the deadline. Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases By 2015, this goal is needed to have accomplished stopping HIV/AIDS and embarked on the reversal of its spread. Many young people lack the necessary skills to control and combat HIV/AIDS.
This goal also targets to make accessible universal treatment to all the HIV victims. Apart from that, the goal is aimed at stopping malaria and other major diseases by 2015 and then embarking on its reversal. This goal is being realized because the number of HIV infections is reducing steadily. According to the UN Report of 2010, there has been a steady fall in the number of HIV infections from 3.5 million in 1996 to 2.7 million in 2008. Funds are being directed to fight this pandemic in many countries across the globe, especially African states.
Young people are being educated on how to fight HIV and in Botswana and Kenya, free antiretroviral treatment is being provided (47). The campaign against malaria in India and most African countries is also on its highest toll (“Millennium Development Goals Report” 41). Conclusion From the report, it can be deduced that efforts are being done to meet most of these goals. However, some goals still lag far much behind and by 2015, their targets will not have been met.
The efforts to reduce poverty and hunger by providing self sustainability to most poor people are helping greatly. Provision of universal education and introduction of measures to curb HIV/AIDS and malaria is also progressing well but the rate at which things are happening is still too low. Realizing gender equality, maternal health for women and reduction of child mortality rates should be stepped up in order to meet the targeted results. Generally, there are efforts to achieve these targets but countries should put more efforts to meet the deadline.
Works Cited
Assesing progress in Africa toward the Millennium Development Goals. Web.
Bojo, Jan and Rama Chandra. Poverty reduction strategies and the Millenium Development Goal on Environmental Sustainability: Opportunity for alignment. Web.
Devarajan, Shantayanan, Margeret Miller and Eric Swanson. The costs of attaining Millennium Development Goals. Web.
Education Counts: Towards the Millennium Development Goals. Web.
Getting serious about meeting the Millennium Development Goals: A comprehensive Development Framework Progress Report. Web.
Linking Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management: Policy Challenges and Opportunities. Web.
Millennium Development Goals Report. Web.
The Millenium Development Goals Report. Web.